Nonsmokers are also vulnerable to chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), doctors said on Tuesday, after a clinical survey showing that nearly 30 percent of drivers of a local taxi service are at risk of developing the disease.
COPD is characterized by chronic inflammation of the pulmonary tissue, said Taiwan Society of Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine chairman Wang Hao-chien (王鶴健), an attending physician at National Taiwan University Hospital.
An estimated 880,000 people in the nation have the disease, but only about half had been diagnosed and treated, he said.
Smoking and exposure to air pollution are two major risk factors of COPD, he added.
The society recently teamed up with a taxi service company to screen the lung functions of 851 taxi drivers aged 51 to 55.
The tests showed that more than 40 percent of the drivers were prone to coughing, shortness of breath or excessive sputum production, and 27 percent had abnormal lung functions and a higher risk of developing COPD, but more than half of them were not aware of the disease.
Doctors cited another case, a 65-year-old woman surnamed Lai (賴), a nonsmoker who works at a parking booth.
Since she contracted cold-
induced asthma more than 20 years ago during pregnancy, Lai said she felt her lungs had become weaker.
She was diagnosed with severe COPD about 10 years ago.
Lai said she often contracts a severe cold or pneumonia whenever the weather changes drastically.
Last winter, she was taken to an emergency room after she suddenly had difficulty breathing and felt as if someone was choking her.
Lotung Poh-Ai Hospital vice superintendent Chiu Kuo-chin (邱國欽) said that initial symptoms of COPD include an early-morning cough, wheezing and shortness of breath, which are easily mistaken for asthma or a cold.
However, people with COPD differ in that they often feel out of breath when engaging in simple activities like walking for a short distance or climbing a flight of stairs.
While coughing, panting or producing excessive sputum might seem like mild symptoms, the disease could become life-threatening if a person’s lung functions worsen, Wang said.
The one-year mortality rate for people with COPD is about 20 percent.
The society urged people to avoid smoking and exposure to air pollution, such as heavy traffic, and consult a doctor as soon as possible when symptoms occur, because lung damage cannot be reversed.
Starlux Airlines, Taiwan’s newest international carrier, has announced it would apply to join the Oneworld global airline alliance before the end of next year. In an investor conference on Monday, Starlux Airlines chief executive officer Glenn Chai (翟健華) said joining the alliance would help it access Taiwan. Chai said that if accepted, Starlux would work with other airlines in the alliance on flight schedules, passenger transits and frequent flyer programs. The Oneworld alliance has 13 members, including American Airlines, British Airways, Cathay Pacific and Qantas, and serves more than 900 destinations in 170 territories. Joining Oneworld would also help boost
A new tropical storm formed late yesterday near Guam and is to approach closest to Taiwan on Thursday, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. Tropical Storm Pulasan became the 14th named storm of the year at 9:25pm yesterday, the agency said. As of 8am today, it was near Guam traveling northwest at 21kph, it said. The storm’s structure is relatively loose and conditions for strengthening are limited, WeatherRisk analyst Wu Sheng-yu (吳聖宇) said on Facebook. Its path is likely to be similar to Typhoon Bebinca, which passed north of Taiwan over Japan’s Ryukyu Islands and made landfall in Shanghai this morning, he said. However, it
Taiwan's Gold Apollo Co (金阿波羅通信) said today that the pagers used in detonations in Lebanon the day before were not made by it, but by a company called BAC which has a license to use its brand. At least nine people were killed and nearly 3,000 wounded when pagers used by Hezbollah members detonated simultaneously across Lebanon yesterday. Images of destroyed pagers analyzed by Reuters showed a format and stickers on the back that were consistent with pagers made by Gold Apollo. A senior Lebanese security source told Reuters that Hezbollah had ordered 5,000 pagers from Taiwan-based Gold Apollo. "The product was not
COLD FACTS: ‘Snow skin’ mooncakes, made with a glutinous rice skin and kept at a low temperature, have relatively few calories compared with other mooncakes Traditional mooncakes are a typical treat for many Taiwanese in the lead-up to the Mid-Autumn Festival, but a Taipei-based dietitian has urged people not to eat more than one per day and not to have them every day due to their high fat and calorie content. As mooncakes contain a lot of oil and sugar, they can have negative health effects on older people and those with diabetes, said Lai Yu-han (賴俞含), a dietitian at Taipei Hospital of the Ministry of Health and Welfare. “The maximum you can have is one mooncake a day, and do not eat them every day,” Lai
RSS